Putin accuses foreigners of meddling

Russian leader says spies using NGOs to interfere in affairs

January 26, 2006|By Steven Lee Myers, New York Times News Service.

MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin accused foreign intelligence operatives Wednesday of using private groups to interfere in Russia's internal affairs, saying that accusations that four British diplomats were spies justified new government curbs on the groups.

Putin has previously criticized foreign support for groups involved in politics here, but on Wednesday he linked the groups to intelligence agencies more explicitly than he had before.

His remarks intensified a furor that erupted after the disclosure of what officials said was a British espionage operation that used a device concealed in a fake rock to exchange information with a Russian agent.

"We see that there are attempts to work with non-governmental organizations with the help of special services and that there is financing of non-governmental organizations through the channels of foreign secret services," Putin said in televised remarks from St. Petersburg, where he was meeting with leaders of other former Soviet republics.

"I think that nobody has the right, in the given situation, to claim that money has no smell," he added.

One of the accused British diplomats, identified as Marc Doe, oversaw British grants to private groups, including some prominent groups that promote democracy and human rights.

Although intelligence officials acknowledged there was no direct connection between those grants and the espionage that has been alleged, the distinction has largely evaporated in the fury of Russian reaction to the spy scandal.

British officials have declined to discuss Russia's accusations, though the Foreign Office denied that any of its grants to Russian groups were improper. The groups Russia has linked to the affair, without specifying illegalities, include the Moscow Helsinki Group and the Center for Democracy and Human Rights.

The scandal could worsen relations with Britain and other countries as Russia presses its crackdown on European and U.S. financial support of groups that criticize the Kremlin.

This month, Putin signed into law new controls over private groups, requiring them to reregister and prohibiting foreign financing of activities deemed political. Foreign leaders and Russian representatives of the groups called the curbs a bid to stifle political discourse.

Ulrich Fischer, the president of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, called accusations against that group's Moscow branch and other groups slanderous and "part of an official Russian policy to silence criticism and strengthen ever further a centralized state power."

Putin, in his remarks, said that Russia is still considering whether to expel the four diplomats, all midranking secretaries in the British Embassy. This indicated for the first time that the diplomats had not yet been expelled or withdrawn, though the espionage that was alleged was reported to have been uncovered last fall.